“For us, it’s when you pay and when you make a claim, neither of which are particularly pleasant.”

This, Ms Williams said, allowed HCF to implement significant changes in how it engages with new and existing members, a task she admitted was challenging due to the “somewhat cynical environment” of consumers blaming insurers for rising healthcare costs.

“One challenge you will face today is that the journey with a customer is not linear,” she explained.

“We rethought the way that we segmented our audiences.”

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Understand your customersThis audience segmentation, Ms Williams said, involved the creation of eight distinct customer profiles, and content was then created with each of these profiles in mind that looked at what customers needed to know, as well as what they would like to know.

“Focus on the end-users and what they are looking for, rather than the systems,” Ms Williams advised.

As part of this, she outlined what she calls “the three Cs of success: co-ordination, collaboration and change management”.

By examining its existing membership base and adapting its website content, marketing strategies and advertising, Ms Williams said HCF saw a 25 per cent increase in website conversions within the first six months alone, as well as higher levels of brand awareness and engagement.

Tips for rebrandingMs Williams said her tips for other businesses considering a rebrand are:

1. Before you start, be realistic about your time frames and what you hope to achieve.2. Demonstrate optimism, but make that optimism authentic.3. Speed makes people nervous, so have a parachute (i.e. contingency plans that allow everyone to slow down and regain perspective).4. Involve your employees early on, to bring them on the journey with you from the start: “people don’t mind working hard when they know they are going somewhere special”.